how do you guys play scales?

platinumstatusbeats said:
whats up fp i was wondering how do you guys play your scales?

i was wondering if anybody could point me in a direction on how to play them correctly
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There are so many types and variations of scales. My best advice would be to get a method book or take private lessons for whatever instrument. It takes practice but learning scales give you an advantage.
 
I've been making beats for a while...and while you can get away with making hip hop beats without knowing any theory and how to play an instrument correctly lol...it does greatly benefit you to learn... I'm talking about my experience with the keyboard, since that is what I use to make beats..When I first got into understanding the instrument, and the basic theory..I was overwhelmed and could barely fit my head around it all...but just take little steps man.. I still dont know all my scales, but what I suggest to do, is start small...Try Major scales since there is primarily only 1 type of Major, compared to 3 (natural, harmonic, melodic) Minors... And like i said, start small...You can leave the sharp and flat scales out, but focus on the Major scales of A thru G..memorize them, play them continuously..really take time to learn them. After a lil bit of time, you should naturally pick up a "feel" for the scale, and be able to easily play the pattern for all major scales... Then do the sharp and flat scales, and eventually moving onto the minors..

Or another way, which is much like the way I just explained...is pick anything.. A thru G... lets say you picked C Major...Learn C Major, at the same time learn its relative minor, A Minor.....

theres other people here that can help with more technical stuff..like the actual theory behind scales, and even better techniques to play them...But hope this post was able to help some
 
i been playing instruments and reading music for 12 yrs now. Definitely a plus with your beats. Just got learn not the scales but the major and minor keys.. first then start with the variations of scales. Its gets complicated especially guitar
 
Alot of producers have the "magic" transpose button. So all white keys stating at c4 etc. will play all your scales. who need theory when technology do it for you. But if you go to a studio and some one ask what key the song is in then thats a different story!
 
mikecbeats1 said:
Alot of producers have the "magic" transpose button. So all white keys stating at c4 etc. will play all your scales. who need theory when technology do it for you. But if you go to a studio and some one ask what key the song is in then thats a different story!
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Playing all white keys is C Major or Natural A Minor....

Unless you're talking about something like FL Studio, where you can choose your scale, click what note you want the scale to be in, and then have 7 notes appear in the piano roll for said scale... I dont really know what transpose means lol but I think we're talking about the same thing...
 
quantumleap said:
Playing all white keys is C Major or Natural A Minor....

Unless you're talking about something like FL Studio, where you can choose your scale, click what note you want the scale to be in, and then have 7 notes appear in the piano roll for said scale... I dont really know what transpose means lol but I think we're talking about the same thing...
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I was talking about with the keyboard. If you have a keyboard or midi board you can transpose on there and it will change the key. But i forgot you can do it on fl.
 
Play whatever sounds good to you. if you think in terms of scales all the time, it will limit your creative process, because sometimes throwing in a note off your scale adds an interesting note to a stale melody. Just don't do it too much. Also, as a general rule, ending your melody with the same note you started rounds off the melody well, but this is a VERY general rule.
 
and enter bandcoach .......?

---------- Post added at 11:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------

So to be very brief and somewhat generic about it - In western music (the stuff we play), all scales can be and usually are talked about in relation to a major scale (ex.- a blues scale is 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7 of a major scale) A C major scale on a piano is C to C, all white keys. What makes this a major scale is the pattern of whole and half steps.

The distance between any key and the next one up or down, black or white is a half step. The distance between a c and d is two half step, aka a whole step. So if a c major scale is C D E F G A B C, then that's (w=whole step, h= half step) w w h w w w h. You can apply this to any other key by just repeating the same pattern but starting on a different note to get that major scale. An F major scale is F G A Bb C D E F, or w w h w w w h starting on an F.

However, you can also play F to F but use all the white keys. This is essentially playing a C major scale, but starting on the fourth note of the scale. This is the fourth relative mode of C major or an F lydian mode. If you look at the whole and half step pattern of that scale or mode, it's w w w h w w h, the only difference between this and a major scale is the forth note of the lydian mode is half a step higher than the major scale. So another way you could look at the lydian mode is it is a major scale with a raised forth note. So a C lydian would be C D E F# G A B C.

omg, this is taking forever, i will continue tomorrow if bandcoach doesn't come and do it way better first
 
platinumstatusbeats said:
i know scales i just meen far as playing a scales do you guys start with the root 2,3,4, etc etc!

my melodies is getting boring
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Now I understand the question.

Scales can be played in lots of ways.

Starting at the root and moving up and down is the most obvious way.

Continue by doing the same for each note in the scale and you practice the modes of the scale, also good to know, as you then become adept at recognising modal vs. tonal melodies and chord progressions.

next step up is to ascend by 3rds, e.g.

1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7-9-8
EX.
C-E-D-F-E-G-F-A-G-B-A-C-B-D-C

Now descend by 3rds:

8-6-7-5-6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1
EX.
C-A-B-G-A-F-G-E-F-D-E-C-D-B-C

Again, do this for every note so that you practice the modal variants as well.

Now ascend by short scale tone runs, e.g.

1-2-3-1-2-3-4-2-3-4-5-3-4-5-6-4-5-6-7-5-6-7-8-9-7-8-9-10-8
EX.
C-D-EC-D-E-F-D-E-F-G-E-F-G-A-F-G-A-B-G-A-B-C-A-B-C-D-B-C

and descend by short scale tone runs:

8-7-6-8-7-6-5-7-6-5-4-6-5-4-3-5-4-3-2-4-3-2-1-3-2-1-7-2-1
EX.
C-B-A-C-B-A-G-B-A-G-F-A-G-F-E-G-F-E-G-F-E-D-F-E-D-C-B-D-C

Start on each note in the scale again to practice the modal variants.

I'm currently moving house so only sporadically dropping in. Should be back to normal contributions by Sept 7.
 
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